Celebrity Chef Hot Cross Bun Recipes

How All Your Favourite Chefs Make Hot Cross Buns

Easter wouldn't be Easter without hot cross buns, and your favourite chefs have each got their own twist on this traditional bake. We've rounded up interesting versions from 14 chefs, including extra flavours, alternative ingredients to suit different dietary requirements, and mashups with other Easter favourites such as simnel cake and Brit classics like hot cross bun bread and butter pudding. Check them out below, and don't miss out on the fun if you're totally committed to healthy eating — we've got a healthy hot cross bun recipe just for you, too.

Paul Hollywood: Fresh Fruit

The Great British Bake Off judge has been making these "real" hot cross buns since he was 9. What makes them the proper ones? A chopped dessert apple and orange zest. Paul has revealed that the "original recipes used fresh fruit, it's only quite recently we've started using dried fruit."

You can make gluten-free hot cross buns using this version of Paul's recipe, which uses a gluten and wheat-free white bread flour.

As you'd expect, Nigella's sneaked in a few extra ingredients to her hot cross buns to make them more glam. She's done this in the milk, infusing it with orange zest, clove, and cardamom pods, because it provides a "heavenly scent".

Heston Blumenthal: Bread and Butter Pudding With Lemon Custard

Delia Smith: Breadmaker

You might think of Delia as an old-fashioned cook, but she's well into 21st Century kitchen gadgets with her breadmaker hot cross buns, which, she says, cuts all the "tedious bits out of making an enriched dough." She also has a traditional recipe, too, of course.